Digital Transformation Insights

Thu, 30 Apr 2015

Apple Watch: A Game Changer if ever there was one!

By Mukund Balasubramanian, Co-founder & CTO, Photon

The Apple Watch will be a game changer for the Wearables category just as the iPhone was for mobile phones. Apple Watch will be the Gold Standard of brand experiences as consumer digital evolution curve continues from the Web to Mobile and now to multi-screen touchpoints.

Apple has had a spectacular track record in the Jobs era but currently, post-Jobs, Apple has been a much more cautious company. When they plan a new product launch like this one, Apple is prone to getting it 100% right as they did with the iPhone 6. So the combination of consumer behavior change (the backlash against time spent staring at our smartphones), the technology wave (Digital Connectivity and Multi-screen Devices) and Apple’s evolution into the technology behemoth it is today will make Apple Watch a product that gives the world a lot to chew on - Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Muster projects sales of 8 million watches in the first year; CCS Insight says that Apple could sell as many as 20 million.

As the developer of some of the most used corporate iPhone apps in the industry, Photon has been studying Apple Watch and its implications for you. Here are our observations.

The Consumer Journey: Apple Watch represents another major front in the growing number and type of ways in which consumers experience your brand. Having only a mobile app and not engaging the consumer through these touchpoints will relegate a brand to irrelevance the same way having only a website but no mobile app led to diminishing engagement for several corporations. Therefore Apps on the watch and soon in the car and in the home are critical for projecting and keeping relevant your brand.

Technology Evolution: The evolution of CPU and Compute Power, Connectivity and Screen and Display Tech come together in devices like the Apple Watch. Secure connections like the phone to the watch create machine to machine networks which will be ubiquitous going forward.

Apple’s Strength: The age of Cook and Ive has been founded on cautious maturing from an upstart to the technology behemoth which cannot afford to be wrong but can afford not to be as nimble. Their moves are beautifully planned, well-executed and hit the nail on the consumers needs.

Importance of taking action: Every brand we work with is already in development with or is considering an Apple Watch App and we strongly encourage every brand to at least think about what their brand experience looks like in this new world.